Tag: Italian cars

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Market #42: Yet another scrappy ‘Guilietta’ Sprint Veloce project

Update: Wow, no takers for $7000.  If it was in my area I’d be all over it.  It might help if they list it so it can be more easily seen by spelling Giulietta correctly.  Hmmm, lets see if it gets relisted.

Update: Ian reported that more pictures have been posted and indeed they have.  He commented that the carbs are not original, I think he means it should have 40DCO3’s.  I’m not certain and have seen no evidence one way or the other, but keeping in mind that Alfa during this period were consistently inconsistent, I think Veloces at this point may have had 40 DDCOE3’s as this is about the time they were being phased in and showing up on cars.  What’s the difference you ask?  E refers to the Italian word for Die-cast.  I think there is a pretty good section on the differences on the Veloce Register website.  Anyone?

Giulietta Sprint Veloce 750E 1495E08315, Engine 1315*32289. Ian Evans sent me a link to this auction with the note: “Probably a safe bet to believe it truly does not run since it is missing the carburetors, eh?” I’m glad he sent it along because I’ve been too busy to troll for cars to write about. For once Fusi is in agreement with the seller and it is indeed a 1959 Sprint Veloce. Metric gauges, swooshy market lights and amber directionals in the tail lights indicate it’s a European Market car, an inquiry to Alfa’s archives would tell you which country if it mattered to you.

The good: Straight nose and trim, good hood fit, not missing much. The bad: everything needs to be reconditioned, expensive to say the least! The ugly: The rust you see here hints at a level of corrosion on all the parts that is difficult to remove. I wonder if a tree fell on it like my Berlina.

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Other 1315 series Giulietta engine numbers.

In 1955, with introduction of the Giulietta Berlina and Spider, an engine number series was started for each.  For the Spider, engine numbers run from AR 1315*40001* through *45854* and for the Berlina AR 1315*50001* through *74950*.  In 1956 The Sprint and Spider Veloce’s were introduced  sharing the engine number series starting with AR 1315*30001* and running to *32738*.  For 1957 an increased power version of the Berlina was introduced, the TI for ‘Turismo Internationale’ with an engine number range starting with AR 1315*80001* and running to *97834*.  Oddly the series number for the TI is 753 rather than 750.  I have read that the Romeo 2 van was being produced at this point with a Giulietta 1300 engine as an option and if so, it may have an engine number that is a variation on one of the above.

Andrew Watry owns Giulietta Berlina 750C 1488 01774, engine number 1315*51850.  Note the depth of the stamping effort in the vin plate.  The early cars seem to have been more aggressively stamped or perhaps the earlier were done by hand and the later had some sort of jig.

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Market #41: Giulietta SS 00207 cleaned up.

Another update: This car has reportedly sold!  I guess that means you have to buy mine…

Update: I found a couple of pictures from the previous sale if anyone is seriously interested in this car and wants to see them email me at sprints@giuliettas.com. Also this car is missing the hood spear but they are available.

Giulietta SS 10120*00207, Engine 00536*08350, Bertone *87*209*. Fantasy Junction has this car listed for $48,500. This car was sold by them last year for about $28,000 as a project. Interestingly the link on their ‘Cars we sold’ page is gone. I suppose if I was selling this car a second time after it under went a cosmetic face lift I’d rather the world didn’t know.

The engine in the car is a 1600cc from a 1966 Giulia Sprint GT Veloce or a Duetto and contemporary literature lists the power output at either 125 or 122 depending on the brochure, either way a few shy of the 129hp claimed for a 10121 Giulia SS. The good: Probably a fast smooth 10120 Giulietta SS, not as high strung as one with the original 100 hp 1300cc engine but the bad: it’s not original and the price doesn’t adequately reflect this in my opinion, though I suppose it could be argued that it’s close. I could of course go on at length with opinions but form your own from this: The correct 00120 Engine with all the the correct parts in running condition starts at $15,000 due to its commonality with the expensive SZ, a 1966 Veloce engine like the one in this car is maybe $5-6000.

Car looks a lot better than it did when I looked at it last year. All of the loose ends seem to have been tied up. I like the addition of fog lights. Headlights are cheapo Wagners or something. I’d like to see some period Carello’s or Marchal’s but if you’re sprucing a car up to make money it probably doesn’t make sense to spend money unnecessarily, especially when so few would notice.

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Market #40: Another low in Sprints

Giulietta Sprint 1493*22515.  This 1960 Sprint Normale was on eBay here and sold for $310!  Not a bad deal if you have a project you need body panels for or if you (like me) have a lot of extra Sprint parts and are looking for something to bolt them to.  Another good use for this would be as a mule to develop some welding skills on, the benefits would be two-fold:  You’d be learning to weld and you’d be saving an otherwise fairly hopeless seeming car. 

Sellers have all the removed parts and would consider keeping them with the car for a price.  How considerate. 

The nose here is really not that bad.  I see some dents and wrinkles but this is what you would find under the paint and filler on just about any Sprint, concours contenders included.

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Market #36: Very Rough 1600 SS

Update: This car (11/18/08) is now offered for 1012 Euro.  Next thing you know this car will be free if you are willing to get a tetanus shot and show up with a trailer.  I know of a similar car locally that, in addition to being this rusty, was hit HARD in the front, that recently changed hands for the price of a tow.  Someday for this car?  I hope so…

The opening bid of $5413.80 (3500 Euro) will probably buy you this challenging SS rusty shell project that is currently on Italian eBay. Of course what do you do with something like this? From the pictures, I’d say half of the car would have to be rebuilt from panel sections and fabricated from scratch. Lets not forget glass… doors… trim…

This is kind of what I expected to arrive when my SS came, but I spent less than this and got more than I was hoping of the trim and glass. Drivers side headlight opening is funky among other things. Steering box should be present, a small plus.

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Market #35: Black plate Sprint Veloce Confortevole project

Sold! $19,340. Deutschland, here it comes. Well, it is eBay, so we wont know until a few weeks pass without it reappearing if it actually sold.  I was kind of thinking $20,000 would be the tipping price between a good buy and a good sale, so for what it’s worth I owe myself a t-shirt.  Greig, you were the only entrant in my guess the final price contest so I guess I owe you a T-shirt either way.  Hopefully I’ll get to them in our life-time.

Sprint Veloce ‘Confortevole’ 1493E*06481, engine 1315*30972. I am starting to think that Michael at Fast Cars of California has a endless hoard of Giulietta projects, mainly Sprints. Today’s offering is a 1958 Giulietta Sprint Veloce Confortevole project that apparently spent 15 years with weeds growing through its trunk. The car is complete and basically sound but requires (and deserves) a full restoration.

Pretty much all there and ready to come apart. Nose has been where it ought not have been and has lots of little dents to show for the experience. Grill ‘eyebrows’ can be had.

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Market #33: Giulietta Spider… Veloce?… Veloce!

Reserve not met! Auction ended the second time around at $9100, I guess the repeated listing curse has struck.  I imagine the seller will regroup, make some small changes to the car then relist it in a few months when the general public has forgotten about it.

Relisted: The car is back on ebay due to a non-paying high bidder. The seller has added to the description a scan of a response from the Alfa Romeo Archive stating without caveat that the car is a Giulietta Spider Veloce. Will a relist with solid documentation take this auction higher than the first selling price or will the eBay repeated listing low-price curse strike? I anticipate the former. Veloces are special and with a little, ok, well, a lot of work this car will be fantastic.

Update: Car sold for $14,100 which is at the lower end of my speculation, but considering the expense of getting a 750 Veloce engine together this is probably a good price. As always, we’ll see if the sale sticks. I am thinking Sprints might be more popular than Spiders right now based on recent eBay results.

Giulietta Spider 10125 1495*(F)10203, Engine 1315*44059 (not original). This car is available now on eBay, another neat Giulietta project from the seller in Newport Beach who sold several of the Sprints I have written about. This car is being sold as a Veloce and has several physical characteristics of a Veloce but based on the numbers there is some legitimate doubt as to whether it is truly a Veloce.

There are a lot of VERY enthusiastic Alfa people out there whose primary interest and first love are Giulietta Spider’s, especially Veloce’s, and if you are seriously considering this car and looking for guidance, you may want to check out the AlfaBB (link is to a discussion of this car) or join the 750/101 Yahoo group to track some of them down and get their opinions.

This Spider almost looks like a wax and go in this picture. Dent in the nose is not too bad and it doesn’t seem to have affected the trim which all looks pretty good. I like the baby blue.

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1972 Fiat 124 Sedan Special Suspension Squeeks

The other day I drove the Fiat to work so Steph could drive the ‘luxury liner’ as she calls the BMW 325 wagon on some errands after work.  Every bump I hit caused a horrible knock/bump sound from the front suspension.  I crawled under the car and discovered that one of the sway bar mounting bolts had sheared and the silent bloc had made it’s way out of the mount so the bar was banging on the lower control arm.

Fiat 124 Sedan Special sway bar mount is not nearly as complicated as the drop link arrangement found on the Giuliettas I’m used to.  Here the silent block IS the mount.

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Berlina recommission becomes Sprint originalization plan

I’ve been thinking about what I want out of the Berlina and how best to achieve it. I want a daily commuter that gets as close to 30mpg as possible with plenty of torque and top end. I have been pondering the quickest, cheapest and easiest approach to getting this out of the Berlina and I think I figured it out yesterday after an hour long session going back and forth between a catalog and an Excel spreadsheet followed by a call to my local used Alfa parts supplier. I’m going to pull the carburetted 1750 that is in my 1959 Sprint out and put it in the Berlina then put the original 1300 back in the Sprint.

What a mess! You can see from this picture why I was keen to freshen up the engine bay on the Sprint. An hour of work and I’m ready to crawl under the car to disconnect the transmission.

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Market #34: Barn find Giulia Spider Normale

Sold!  33 bids and an ending price of $8700.  Almost exactly what I sold mine for a few years back.  If it can be brought to life and put on the road without much fuss then a very good buy.

Giulia Spider AR10123*373944, Engine 00112*04458.  Available now on eBay is this 1962 Spider.  Seller says it doesn’t run but rolls and steers fine.  Rust is reported to be limited to the shelf behind the seats and the hood edges.  From the pictures it appears this car has the 3 shoe drum brake set-up and a later split case 5-speed.  No mileage is stated but these cars seem to accrue about 80 – 100,000 before they are taken off the road for lack of some small repair only to turn up as barn finds 20 years later.

I owned a 1962 Spider very similar to this car.  It was a single carb 1600 with a split case 5 speed and 3 shoe drum brakes (you can read about it here).  It had similar patina but no rust.  The engine looked about the same and with a little coaxing came to life easily enough.

Originally white, now red, with over-spray all over the place.  Looks like a straight forward honest car, not quite a wax and go, but almost.  All the trim is in place and there are no obvious problems.

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